Like Gotham needed a Dark Knight, the DC movie universe needs a saviour alright. Ever since their favourite hero Chris Nolan gave up on Batman, the ex-numero uno superhero brand has been lurking in the shadows. Someone definitely needs to rescue them from the clutches of B-movie treatment. Their films are increasingly getting tacky and while this year’s Wonder Woman origin story did provide a glimmer of hope, Snyder’s abandoned Justice League has added a thick layer of gloom on DC’s prospects of making good superhero films.

Justice League is supposed to be to DC what The Avengers is to Marvel. A movie where the best of their superhero characters come together to fight the epic fight. Sadly, Bruce Wayne’s efforts at recruiting The Flash, Cyborg, Aquaman and Wonder Woman look as amateur as a Beverly Hills hack putting together a boy band with neurotic teens. There’s more time spent on remembering Superman than getting the heroes’ team together. And once Superman does make a comeback, the seemingly invincible bad guy from space Steppenwolf becomes as docile as a shepherd. Remarkably, the DC universe has a big bad guy nuttier than Kim Jong Un and Thanos put together. But Darkseid gets nothing more than a mention in a passing dialogue. The entire length of the Justice League movie is otherwise spent with adult actors wearing fancy costumes and pretending to feel important under the veil of their save-the-world setting. It’s unsettling to see the likes of Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa, Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill grin like perfect idiots in paused up frames.

The only glimmer of hope in this botched up superhero movie is Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman. In an incredibly bad setup, she and her Amazonian sisters still manage to pack a punch. Momoa’s Aquaman brings in a tidal wave of rhetoric that’s funny but its pushed to the sidelines with such speed that makes The Flash look like a snail. Remarkably, Joss Whedon, the guy who started the modern superhero revolution with The Avengers back in 2010, stepped in to save this film. That he’s managed to salvage absolutely nothing from this feature is a real face palm moment.

Justice League is just about the most drab and lacklustre superhero epic ever made. The film ends in a climax where hellish alien rocks suddenly start sprouting flowers with psychedelic colours and a band of able bodied men and women wearing tight clothes and capes exclaim that they’ve seen nirvana. Somebody please call Christopher Nolan. The DC universe needs a good doctor and a rehab.